Independent review of complexity in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme

About the review

The National Registration and Accreditation Scheme was established in 2009 as a single regulatory model for registered health practitioners in Australia.

The NRAS has changed since 2010. Recommendations from 25 previous reviews and parliamentary inquiries aimed to continuously improve it over time.

In early 2023, the public raised concerns about inconsistent practices. As a result, Commonwealth, state and territory health ministers agreed to an independent review of the NRAS.

The review process will involve consultation with stakeholders. This will make sure the NRAS continues to support high-quality and safe health services.

Terms of reference

Health ministers have approved the terms of reference for the review.

Why the review is important

The review recommendations will:

• keep in step with community expectations
• improve how the NRAS makes decisions and deals with complaints about health practitioners
• consider how the NRAS can expand and grow to meet future needs
• advise on how strategy and direction will be set for the NRAS in the future.

Independent reviewer

Ms Sue Dawson was appointed as the independent reviewer in April 2024.

Ms Dawson most recently held the position of New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commissioner. She has also worked in senior roles in the NSW and Commonwealth public sectors for:

• income support
• school funding
• employment policy and programs.

She has qualifications in law, social work and urban planning. Her formal training in public sector policy, regulation and service delivery includes completing the Executive Fellows program at the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).

She will bring her extensive experience and knowledge of health regulation in Australia to the complexity review.

Key timeframes

The review process will have 4 stages:

1. research and analysis
2. preparing the consultation paper, including evidence, questions and possible solutions
3. consultation including submissions and stakeholder forums 
4. presentation of draft final report and targeted stakeholder consultation.

The review will be completed by April 2025. However, it will depend on the need for further stakeholder consultation.

Have your say

There are different ways for you to provide input during the review.

The independent reviewer is widely consulting in stage 3 to hear all perspectives and voices. This includes:

• a written submission process where stakeholders can give feedback on questions and policy solutions suggested in the consultation paper
• targeted stakeholder meetings in each state and territory.

As part of the review process, the independent reviewer will consult:

• governments
• regulators
• health professions
• peak bodies
• consumers.

We will add more information about stakeholder consultations and how to participate on this page when it becomes available.

Consultation papers and reports

The Review is inviting submissions based on the Consultation Paper. There is a submission template that is available from the link in the Consultation paper. We ask that these be prepared in the submission template. This will assist us to register and acknowledge your submission. It will also assist the Review to do analysis across all submissions on the key topic or relevance to the review. 

Your completed submission template should be emailed to NRASComplexityReview@health.gov.au. Please place Submission in Response to Consultation Paper 1 in the subject line of your email. You will receive confirmation of receipt of your submission.

The deadline for submissions is 14 October 2024. 

Please be advised that all submissions to the Review will be published unless you specifically request that this not occur at the time of lodging the submission.

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